The Quakers of Color International Archive For Quaker Schools, Educators, Students, and Scholars Conceived in 2019 by Dr. Harold D. Weaver Jr., the QCIA is a unique, multi-media study-and-research collection documenting the lives of Friends of Color from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America. These videotaped interviews and transcriptions are available to educators, students, scholars, and the general public online, via our host and exhiboitor Haverford College Library Quaker & Special Collections. Interviews Joyce Ajlouny Palestinian American, Bethesda Friends Meeting. Interviewer: Cooper Vaughn (6 May 2025) Email hccirc@haverford.edu for access! Francisco Burgos Dominican American. Harrisburg Friends Meeting. Interviewed by Cooper Vaughn on 10 April 2025 Watch & Read Online at HC Library Oskar Castro Puerto Rican, Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. Interviewer: Cooper Vaughn (2 April 2025) Watch & Read Online at HC Library Joan Countryman African American, Germantown Friends Meeting. Interviewed by Emma Lapsansky-Werner (29 June 2019) Watch & Read Online at DuBois Library Debby Flack Caribbean British, Godalming Quaker Meeting, UK. Interviewed by Cooper Vaughn on 28 July 2025 Ayesha Imani African American, Ujima Friends Meeting and Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting. Interviewer: Emma Lapsansky-Werner 22 April 2022. Harold D. Weaver Jr. African American, Wellesley Friends Meeting Interviewer: Robert F. Cox (26 August 2019) Watch & Read Online at DuBois Library Kenneth A. Oye Japanese American, Wellesley Friends Meeting. Interviewed by Harold D. Weaver Jr. on 9 December 2020 Watch & Read Online at DuBois Library Carolyne Lamar Jordan African American, West Falmouth Friends Meeting. Interviewed by Harold D. Weaver Jr. on 19 January 2021 Watch & Read Online at HC Library Maurice Gray Eldridge African American. Swarthmore Friends Meeting. Interviewed by Emma Lapsansky-Werner (22 January 2021) Watch & Read Online at DuBois Library Paula Rhodes African American, Mountain View Friends Meeting. Interviewed by Emma Lapsansky-Werner on 17 August 2022 June 2019 Watch & Read Online at HC Library Hezron Masitsa Kenyan, Nairobi Yearly Meeting. Interviewed by Cooper Vaughn on 3 April 2025 Watch & Read Online at HC Library Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge Indigenous South African, Cape Western Monthly Meeting. Interviewed by Harold D. Weaver Jr. 18 June 2020 | 25 June 2020 Watch and Read Online at UMass Amherst (Part 1 & Part 2 ) Dwight Wilson African American, Ann Arbor Friends Meeting. Interviewed by Harold D. Weaver Jr. on 29 July 2022 Lauren Brownlee African American Bethesda Friends Meeting Interviewer: Cooper Vaughn (7 May 2025) Watch & Read Online at HC Library Emma Condori Mamani Aymaran, Santidad Amigos Yearly Meeting. Interviewer: Harold D. Weaver Jr. (6 August 2019) Watch & Read Online at DuBois Library Interview Brian Corr African American, Friends Meeting at Cambridge. Interviewer: Harold D. Weaver Jr. (11 November 2022) Watch & Read Online at DuBois Library Rashid Darden African American, Friends Meeting of Washington. Interviewer: Cooper Vaughn (27 May 2025) Watch & Read Online at HC Library Dancan Sabwa Kenyan, East Africa Yearly Meeting North. Interviewed by Harold D. Weaver Jr. on 6 August 2019 Watch & Read Online at DuBois Library Diane Rowley African American, Atlanta Monthly Meeting. Interviewer: Cooper Vaughn (22 April 2025 | 7 June 2025) Watch & Read Online at HC Library James Varner African American, Orono Monthly Meeting. Interviewer: Harold D. Weaver Jr. (26 August 2019) Watch & Read Online at DuBois Library Lawrence M. Jordan African American, West Falmouth Friends Meeting. Interviewed by Harold D. Weaver Jr. on 14 January 2021 Watch & Read Online at DuBois Library Clinton Petttus African American, Interviewed by Cooper Vaughn on 17 July 2025 Watch & Read Online at HC Library Keith Harvey African American, New England Yearly Meeting of Friends Interviewed by Harold D. Weaver Jr. on 21 November 2022 Samuel Chi-Yuen Lowe Chinese American, Framingham Friends Meeting. Interviewed by Harold D. Weaver Jr. on 12 December 2022 Watch & Read Online at HC Library Philip Lord African American, Ujima Friends Meeting and Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting. Interviewed by Harold D. Weaver Jr. on 21 April 2022 Watch & Read Online at HC Library Niyonu Spann African American, Chester Friends Meeting. Interviewed by Mary Crauderueff on 27 July 2022. Watch & Read Online at HC Library Jean Mikhail Zaru Palestinian, Ramallah Friends Meeting. Interviewed in Ramallah, Palestine, by Max Carter on 29 June 2019 Watch & Read Online at HC Library Our Clients

Havana, Cuba | March 2017 Returning to Cuba for the first time since 1988, Hal was in Havana to discuss collaboration between his Quaker ministry, The BlackQuaker Project, and both the Cuban Quaker Peace Center and the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center, both in Havana. The first: to draw upon Quaker testimonies of Truth, Equality, Peace, and Justice to offer workshops to Cubans on the lives of Afro-Cubans, including the impact of slavery in colonial Cuba and on contemporary Cuba and the second: to discuss translating and publishing in Spanish our collective anthology, BLACK FIRE: AFRICAN AMERICAN QUAKERS ON SPIRITUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS (edited with Paul Kriese, Steve Angell, and Anne Steere Nash.) We are still hoping to reach an agreement with both organizations. Hal did not know what to expect in a Havana he had not experienced in 28 years, previously there in roles as transnational actor using film and tourism to aid international understanding and peace. Fidel, who had hosted a reception that Hal attended with other guests at the 1985 New Latin American Cinema Festival, was no longer there. However, Hal was happy to find that several of the major ideals and accomplishments of the Revolution seemed to be still functioning: the most comprehensive, free universal health-care system--and purportedly the best-- in the Americas; the Cuban Film Institute, which pioneered, in the 1970’s, the international truth-telling movement in films about the nature of chattel slavery in the Americas, in contrast to Hollywood’s romanticizing this exploitative phenomenon; and a free education system that has produced the highest literacy rate in the Americas. Disappointing: witnessing in the tourism industry, in particular, the return of the color bias prominent before 1960. Reuniting with Afro-Cubans in film and scholarship was a highlight of this 10-day sojourn, complementing the meetings exploring collaboration, allowing a slightly better understanding of Cuba, domestically and internationally. A big surprise: encountering at the Quaker Meeting in Havana students and administrators visiting from Westtown School, our Alma Mater.

United Nations | September 2014 4 Sep 2014 - Roundtable Discussion on the Representation of Slavery in Film. Participants: Ambassador Rattray, Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the United Nations and Chair, Permanent Memorial Committee, Vibeke Jensen, Director of the UNESCO Liaison Office in New York And other guests, including: • Roy Anderson, Director of Akwantu: The Journey (2012) and Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess (2015) • Mahen Bonetti, Executive Director, New York African Film Festival Inc. • Professor Mamadou Diouf, Columbia University • Haile Gerima, Director of Sankofa (1993) • Louis Gossett Jr., Academy-Award winning actor, Roots (1977) and The Book of Negroes (2015) • Damon D'Oliveira, Executive Producer of The Book of Negroes (2015) • Clement Virgo, Director of The Book of Negroes (2015) • Dr. Harold Weaver, The BlackFilm Project

Dr. Harold (Hal) Weaver - Director of the BlackQuaker Project Dr. Harold (Hal) D. Weaver is an Associate at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, and the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Hal spent his earliest days on a small Black college campus in Savannah, GA, later moving to Pennsylvania and attending Westtown School and Haverford College. From his early experience in Communist Moscow as a member of an official USSR-USA young adult exchange group, Hal has been a lifelong cultural ambassador. He has traveled the world breaking down barriers and building bridges between cultures, often using film as the medium through The BlackFilm Project and the China-Africa-Russia Project. A pioneer in Africana studies, he founded and chaired the Africana Studies Department at Rutgers. Last fall, Hal continued his mission to correct Cold War historiography by delivering lectures in Moscow, the UK, and Istanbul, on Paul Robeson, African decolonization, African students in the USSR, and his own transnational experiences in cultural diplomacy. He has procured the following honors throughout his academic career: Judith Weller Harvey Quaker Scholar, Guilford College, and Cadbury Scholar, Pendle Hill, 2019. Associate, Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research at Harvard University. Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. Hal continues to break down barriers within the Religious Society of Friends, too, with his ministry, The BlackQuaker Project, one of the fruits of which was the publication of Black Fire: African-American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights (2011), which Hal edited with Paul Kriese and Stephen W. Angell. A member of Wellesley Friends Meeting, Hal is active locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally among Quakers. He has served in governance roles with the Quaker United Nations Office, the American Friends Service Committee, Pendle Hill, Cambridge Friends School, and the Friends World Committee for Consultation. Photo courtesy of John Meyer.

Recordings of Our 2023 Fora: 4 February 2023 - An Interview with Bill Sutherland (1999) Our inaugural event honoring Bill Sutherland (1918-2010): nonviolence advocate, veteran AFSC employee, imprisoned conscientious objector, friend and active supporter of African liberation and freedom fighters. Featuring a discussion between Joyce Ajlouny (AFSC), Keith Harvey (AFSC), and Dr. Matt Meyer. An Interview with Bill Sutherland (1999) is available on the University of Washington in St. Louis website . (please note that this is the full 88 minute interview and not our 30-minute cut with added visuals). 18 February 2023 - Joan Countryman | The Prep School Negro Our second event honoring Joan Countryman, first African American graduate of Germantown Friends School, longtime teacher and administrator in Friends’ schools, former head of Lincoln School and co-founder of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership School for Girls in South Africa. Featuring a discussion between the honoree, Joan Countryman, Emma Bracker, and director André Robert Lee. The Prep School Negro can be purchased on the film’s official website . 4 March 2023 - Sarah Mapps Douglass | Sisters In Freedom Our third event honoring Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882): prolific educator, author, committed abolitionist, and ancestor of Paul Robeson. Featuring a discussion between eminent historian Dr. Emma Lapsansky-Werner and author Joyce Mosley, a Moray-Bustill descendant. Sisters In Freedom is unavailable to screen at this time. 18 March 2023 - Benjamin Banneker: The Man Who Loved The Stars Our fourth event honoring Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806): almanac publisher, astronomer, petitioner to Thomas Jefferson for African American abolition, and faithful Attender of Quaker Meeting. Featuring a discussion with Banneker descendant-researchers of African and European descent: Gwen Marable, Dr. Rachel Webster, and Pamela Williams. Benjamin Banneker: The Man Who Loved The Stars is available on Youtube . 8 April 2023 - Paul Robeson 125th Birthday Celebration Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist and The Proud Valley Our final event celebrating the 125th birthday of the renaissance man, Paul Robeson (1898-1976): scholar and star athlete; screen, stage, and recording star; and linguist and orator and human rights leader. Featuring a discussion with eminent Robeson scholars featuring Dr. Gerald Horne, Dr. Charles Musser, and Dr. Harold D. Weaver. Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist is currently available to watch on HBO Max and The Proud Valley can be purchased from the Criterion Collection .

PUBLICATIONS Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights (2011), edited by Harold D. Weaver, Jr., Paul Kriese, Stephen W. Angell, and Anne Steere Nash. Philadelphia: Quaker Press of FGC, 2011. "Black Fire is a landmark book that reframes our understanding of Quakerism, for it highlights the degree to which American Quakers were interracial almost from the outset, with black leaders shaping Friends' spiritual and reform visions. Brilliantly conceived and beautifully edited, it should be required reading for anyone interested in American religion and reform." -- John Stauffer (Chair of History of American Civilization at Harvard University) "'No country can tell its history truthfully until all its scrolls are unrolled.' ... In Black Fire , as these narratives unfurl, the reader gets a close look at the broad diversity within the black Quaker experience.... For nearly a century, historians and philosophers... have struggled to understand and interpret the many moving parts of face relations, religion, and social justice. Black Fire presents some of those moving parts of the history relating to the Religious Society of Friends, unrolling some new scrolls and offering us new foundations from which to continue to explore African American stories, Quaker stories, and the intersections between the two." -- Emma Lapsansky-Werner (Emeritus Professor of History of the Quaker Collection at Haverford College) "Black Fire is a unique, much-needed contribution to the continuing conversation about religion and race in the United States, and the place of Quakers in it. The editors have created what may well be the definitive anthology." -- Thomas Hamm (Quaker historian and Professor of History at Earlham College) Black Fire Book Launch , March 6th, 2011 Facing Unbearable Truths "Facing Unbearable Truths," (2008) presented 4th month, 2008, by Dr. Harold Weaver, with an introduction by Ann Cook-Frantz. Beacon Hill Friends House Weed Lecture. Race, Systemic Violence, and Retrospective Justice: An African American Quaker Scholar-Activist Challenges Conventional Narratives Dr. Harold Weaver of the BlackQuaker Project asks Friends to look at societal problems through new lenses: confronting systemic violence with antiviolence; acknowledging institutional and systemic racism, rather than merely individual racism; considering a retrospective justice program that compensates for and helps remove the historical inequities related to the transatlantic slave trade, chattel slavery, and their legacies – Jim Crowism, other forms of dehumanization and exploitation, police brutality, and the school-to-prison pipeline. This unjust world is maintained by misinformation and disinformation in the media, formal education, scholarship, and political discourse. Hal Weaver lays out steps and queries in this pamphlet to guide Friends and others to begin addressing these concerns in the wider world. Pendle Hill Pamphlet #465 October 2020 Purchase The Red and the Black: The Russian Revolution and the Black Atlantic (2021) Read Dr. Weaver's chapter here! ONLINE ARTICLES FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS "A Proposed Plan of Action for Friends: Education & Justice, " by Dr. Harold (Hal) Weaver for The Freedom & Justice Crier (Issue #21, Summer 2009). Article begins on page 3. Read here. "Working Draft from the Ad Hoc Committee for a Justice Testimony," by Dr. Harold (Hal) Weaver for The Freedom & Justice Crier (Issue #20, Winter-Spring 2009). Article begins on page 10. Read here. Hal is currently working on his memoirs, Black Fire: An African American Quaker Seeker-Activist in a White-Supremacist Nation, which will become Volume 2 of the trilogy. Planning has begun on Volume 3 of the anthology Black Fire , which will include writings by contemporary Quakers of color worldwide. "A Proposed Plan for Retrospective Justice," by Dr. Harold (Hal) Weaver for Friends Journal (Published January 3, 2021). Read here.

Paris, France | Musee Quai Branly | Dakar 66 Exhibition | Spring 2016 My relationship with friends, colleagues, and institutions in Paris continues to this day, including, later on, with the 2016 exhibition of “Dakar 66: Chronicles d’un festival panafricains” at the Musee Quai Branly. Because I participated in the original festival in April 1966, the Panafest Project of scholars in Paris selected me for interviewing. In addition, I was invited to participate in an international conference in Dakar in November 2016, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ‘66 event. My paper, to be published this year in a volume of conference papers, draws upon the 2013 interview. The festival of ’66 had a dramatic impact on my life, nurturing the budding African American scholar within me to continue on in my academic work.

The 2024 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum "The Bayard Rustin Legacy Forum"

Current Activities 01 Retrospective Justice in Healing Historical Injustice and Ills: Reparations Defined as “an attempt to administer justice years after the commission of a severe injustice or series of injustices,” we advocate that Quakerism adopt Retrospective Justice as a model for healing historical injustice. Our ministry is providing education on this call to action through e-newsletters, publications, and collaborative lecture-presentations with Friend Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, a leader in South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, the African National Congress, and transnational organizations. 02 Collaborating with the United Nations, Quakers, and human-rights activists in activities commemorating the UN International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) and the UN International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. 03 PAUL ROBESON AND BAYARD RUSTIN ADVOCACY: Restoring Paul Robeson and Bayard Rustin to their rightful places in history, including the presentation given at 2019 Friends Association on Higher Education conference, titled Truth and An African American Quaker Activist Scholar: Africana Studies, Paul Robeson, and Bayard Rustin. 04 MEMOIRS AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS: Writing and lecturing on memoirs, "Black Fire: An African American Quaker Seeker-Activist in a White-Supremacist Culture." Vol. II of projected 3-part BLACK FIRE trilogy, with a focus on confronting white supremacy. Updating Cold War historiography manuscript, "Soviet Training and Research Programs for Africa" for publication as MENTAL DECOLONIZATION AND THE COLD WAR: AFRICAN STUDENT ELITES IN THE USSR, in keeping with Quaker testimonies. Revising and updating 2008 Weed Lecture publication, "Facing Unbearable Truths." 05 HONORS: Judith Weller Harvey Quaker Scholar, Guilford College, and Cadbury Scholar, Pendle Hill, 2019. Associate, Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research at Harvard University. Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. 06 ADVOCACY AND COLLABORATIONS: Continuing advocacy and collaborations with domestic and international Quaker and non-Quaker units and individuals working for Truth, Community, Equality, Peace, and Justice. Specifically includes Friends in East Africa, Latin America, Palestine/Israel, and Asia; the Third World Coalition of the American Friends Service Committee; Alaskan Friends Conference; Friends World Committee for Consultation; the Cuban Quaker Peace Institute; et al. 07 TRANSLATION INTO SPANISH: Postponed: Translating into Spanish, “Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights,” 2011, the first publication in the Black Fire trilogy.

COLLABORATION AND ADVOCACY Promoting greater USA Quaker cooperation and collaboration with African and Cuban Quakers, including a major effort to collaborate with Kenyan Quakers in dealing with systemic economic violence and other manifestations of systemic violence often not recognized as violence: poverty, youth unemployment, racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and classism. Participating in the governance of a variety of regional, national, and international Quaker organizations and facilitating the participation of people of color in Quaker governance and staff.

Wellesley Friends Meeting: July 2020 The BlackQuaker Project presents at Wellesley Thursdays LEARN MORE Here In July 2020 Dr. Harold D. Weaver, Jr. and the Black Quaker Project staff presented a report on their ongoing research to Wellesley Friends Meeting. This is a recording of our presentation: BLACK LIVES MATTER! -- Ground-breaking activities and research. (Q&A begins at 33:15)

Race, Systemic Violence, and Retrospective Justice: An African American Quaker Scholar-Activist Challenges Conventional Narratives By Harold D. Weaver, Jr. We are extremely excited to announce our new Pendle Hill pamphlet, “Race, Systemic Violence, and Retrospective Justice: An African American Quaker Scholar-Activist Challenges Conventional Narratives." This pamphlet is now available online at the Pendle Hill Bookstore! Click Here to Order our Pamphlet at Pendle Hill! Our unjust world is maintained by misinformation and disinformation in the media, formal education, scholarship, and political discourse. Dr. Weaver lays out steps and queries to guide Friends and others to begin confronting these concerns in the wider world. This pamphlet addresses the following topics: Understanding the difference between individual racism and institutional or systemic racism. Using active anti-violence to confront systemic violence, rather than passive non-violence. Implementing a plan of retrospective justice to address the legacy of chattel slavery in the Religious Society of Friends and the United States; and calling for a robust justice testimony to begin this process. Forms of Structural Violence MID SEASON SALE SAVE UP TO 50% SHOP NOW Inspired by the work of Palestinian Friend, Quaker Leader, and Human Rights Activist Jean Zaru. Occupied with Nonviolence: A Palestinian Woman Speaks by Jean Zaru (2008)